Politics & Government

10:46 am

Mon July 29, 2013

Committee Set to Add Transparency at DCS

Lawmakers say a new Department of Child Services oversight committee will help increase the agency’s transparency by developing a greater sense of collaboration between the legislature and DCS.

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Listen to Brandon Smith's story about a new state committee designed to make the Indiana Department of Child Services more transparent.

The DCS Oversight Committee was created last legislative session as part of a larger Commission on Improving the Status of Children.

Middlebury Republican Senator Carlin Yoder, who chairs the committee, says it was created because of struggles DCS went through the last several years.

“I would say there was a lack of transparency there,” Yoder said. “I think it got overloaded at the top with too much power placed at the director position back in the Judge Payne days.”

While legislative committees typically produce legislation for the following sessions, Evansville Democratic Representative Gail Riecken says that won’t necessarily be the case with the DCS committee.

“But I think every intention is that we’d like to work through those problems around the table instead of in the state legislature,” Riecken said.

The committee meets for the first time Wednesday. Yoder and Riecken say the meeting will give lawmakers an opportunity to get to know new DCS Director Mary Beth Bonaventura and receive an update on how new DCS funds allocated by the legislature are being used.